Islamic Vatican II Desired, but Unlikely

Rabbi Richard Rubenstein is a ‘Holocaust’ dispensationalist. A ‘Holocaust’ dispensationalist is one who makes ‘The Holocaust’ to be a cosmic cataclysm that shatters all religion, philosophy, art, politics, education, et al, which all must be rebuilt in reference to ‘The Holocaust.’ Holocaust dispensationalism is based in the kabbalistic view of cosmology (which has it that creation was a cosmic disaster) and history (an unfolding process of relationship between God, ‘The Jews,’ and ideas, all in a constant evolutionary state of ‘becoming’). Rubenstein’s 1966 book, After Auschwitz is a founding stone of this fanatical ‘Holocaust’-centrism. Far from being isolated to the realm of lunatic Times Square evangelists, this thinking is welcomed in the highest places of academia and religion today including the Pontifical University in Rome. I have shown how one theological expert of the Vatican II Council is a teacher of this ‘Holocaust’ dispensationalism here:“Auschwitz: Beginning of a New Era?”

One might see the utility of this framework of sanctified paranoia for the subjection of Christianity and ascendancy of Judaism and why Rabbi Rubenstein would like to bring it also to bear on Muslims. One might also note the absence of scholars positing that the Bolshevik revolution or Palestinian ‘Nakba’ (the persecution of the native population of Palestine that the Israeli state was founded on) constitutes a pivotal point which Judaism should be evaluated in reference to, much less the genesis of a religious dispensation.

Rabbi Rubenstein was a speaker at a recent “first Conference on Muslim Antisemitism” where he lamented that ‘dialogue’ with Muslims is unlikely to produce fruit such as Judeo-Christian ‘dialogue’ has produced in Vatican II:

A Vatican II form of “self-reflection” by prominent Islamic leaders is required in order to reduce tensions between Jews and Muslims, said Rabbi Richard Rubenstein, keynote speaker and author of the newly published “Jihad and Genocide” (Rowman & Littlefield). “I do not see this in Islam” … “I don’t engage in dialogue” with Muslim representatives,” he said. “I think it’s a waste of time. It gives them a legitimacy in the United States that they do not deserve.”

On the other hand, said Rabbi Rubenstein, president emeritus of the University of Bridgeport in Bridgeport, Conn., dialogue with Christians is “a realistic possibility. I’ve spent 50 years in a fruitful dialogue with Christians.”

A Muslim version of Vatican II, a first step to reducing Islamic anti-Semitism, is unlikely, several speakers agreed.

“Vatican II was based on some form of mea culpa,” a Catholic admission of guilt in fomenting anti-Semitism, said Andrew Bostom, editor of “Legacy of Jihad and Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism” (Prometheus, 2008). “Mea culpa is not on the [Islamic] radar screen.”

My study of ‘dialogue’ with rabbis and their fellow travelers has led me to the conclusion that they’re not open to self-reflection, mea culpas, or living by the standards they would impose on others. Their ‘dialogue’ is a one-way racket.